ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite Small Business Edition FAQ

Every computer connected to the Internet is a target for numerous threats, including hackers, viruses, worms, spyware and Trojan horse attacks. These threats can plague a computer moments after it first accesses the Internet.

ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite is an easy-to-use, comprehensive security solution. Based on the award-winning ZoneAlarm firewall, ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite includes antivirus, anti-spyware, anti-spam, identity protection and more. ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite comes with out-of-box default security settings. Within minutes, the user's computer is safe from Internet hazards and cybercriminals. Plus, it's flexible and customizable so users can program only the features needed and set the security levels that are appropriate for their online activities.

ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite 7.1 works on the Windows Vista operating system. It is the first product to deliver ZoneAlarm’s superior protection layers to Vista, including its unbeatable antivirus solution, the world’s most popular firewall, and its unique operating system firewall. All of these and other layers have been proven by experts to stop threats that other security solutions miss, delivering superior protection.

Due to the different needs and functionality of the Vista operating system, some features and functionality on 2000/XP may differ on Vista. The following secondary features were removed in ZoneAlarm Security Suite 7.1 to focus on providing a security-specific solution for Vista. Some of these features may be provided in future versions for Vista customers or are currently part of the Vista operating system.

• Spy Site Blocking
• Privacy Protection
• IM Protection
• Parental Control
• MailSafe/Email Security
• ID Lock  

ZoneAlarm’s protection from viruses includes multiple layers, including our firewall, anti-spam, and our Operating System Firewall (OSFirewall) that prevents viruses from damaging your PC and operating system. Most antivirus solutions don’t include these extra layers of protection but rely only on scanning and removing viruses with an “antivirus engine”.

Starting with version 7.0, ZoneAlarm offered a new antivirus engine that is arguably the most respected and effective antivirus engine available today. This award-winning Antivirus technology is from Kaspersky Labs. Kaspersky is known as the leading antivirus provider because of two main things: 1) Its legendary hourly signature updates which make your computer protected sooner from zero-day virus outbreaks; and 2) Its expanded database that goes beyond viruses to catch the latest spyware such as Trojan horses. Kaspersky has won major industry awards from Virus Bulletin, SC Magazine and others and is a favorite among computer experts. It is an excellent and critical component of ZoneAlarm’s multi-layered antivirus defenses.

Windows 2000 Pro/XP Users also get the following additional features.

Note: Some of this functionality is already included in the Vista operating system.

• Spy Site Blocking prevents spyware from getting on a PC by blocking it at its #1 source: spyware distribution sites.
• Privacy Protection manages or blocks unwanted ads, cookies, cache, and scripts.
• Instant Messaging Security provides all-in-one simplicity for the casual computer user. Unlike other Internet security suites, ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite incorporates instant messaging security to ensure that IM conversations are private and secure, regardless of service or client used. Instant Messaging Security protects AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ, MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger so that home and office workers don't have to change their IM habits or software in order to be protected. The Message Encryption prevents IM session eavesdropping. Other IMsecure features defend PCs against IM spam (called 'spim') and risks posed by IM vulnerabilities (including common attacks such as buffer overflows, invalid messages, unsafe scripts, and executable URLs).
• Email Security includes Inbound MailSafe to automatically quarantine suspicious email attachments and blocks them from auto-launching or being opened by accident. Outbound MailSafe automatically monitors outgoing email and halts messages with potential viruses before they’re transmitted. Prevents worms and viruses from sending infected emails to everyone in an address book.
• Parental Control allows parents to protect their children from pornography, violence and other dubious online content. The parental control feature blocks inappropriate Web content dynamically, staying current with the tens of thousands of new offensive sites that spring up weekly without requiring users to download large files. In addition, users may choose to block ads, control cookies and scan and remove third-party tracking cookies that violate users' privacy. Users can also allow cookies from trusted sites to remain on their PC.
• PC Identity Protection safeguards your private information on your PC with ID Lock.

See the FEATURE COMPARISON.

Listed below are the complete system requirements, email protocols, and IM clients supported by ZoneAlarm software products.

System Requirements:

Vista (32-bit):

• Pentium III 800 MHz or higher
• Minimum system RAM: 512 MB
• 50MB of available hard disk space. Internet access.

Windows XP/2000 Pro:

• Pentium III 450 MHz or higher
• Minimum system RAM: 128MB
• 50MB of available hard disk space. Internet access.

Supported protocols for email protection:

• POP3 (Incoming only) — available in all ZoneAlarm products
• SMTP (Outgoing only) — available in all ZoneAlarm products except free ZoneAlarm
• HTTP (Junk email filtering in conjunction with Outlook or Outlook Express) — available in ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite only
• IMAP4 (Incoming only) - IMAP4 is not supported for virus scanning of email. — available only with ZoneAlarm Antivirus and ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite

Supported browsers:
Internet Explorer 5.5, 6.0 SP1, 6.0 SP2, 7.0 SP2
Netscape Navigator 7.2, 8.0 Beta
FireFox 1.00 and higher
MSN Explorer 6.0 and higher
AOL 9.0

Compatible IM clients: (on Windows 2000 and XP)
MSN 6.2.0205 and higher
Windows Messenger 4.7.0.2009 and higher
Yahoo! IM 5.5.1226 and higher
Yahoo! Japan IM* 5.1.0.1095 and higher
AOL IM 5.2.3292 and higher
ICQ Pro 2003b and higher
ICQ Lite 5.0 and higher
Trillian (/MSN/YIM/AIM/ICQ) 0.74i and higher
Trillian Pro (/MSN/YIM/AIM/ICQ) 1.0 and higher
GAIM (/MSN/YIM/AIM/ICQ) 0.74 and higher
Miranda (MSN/YIM/ICQ) 0.3.2 and higher

* Japan Yahoo IM doesn't work with non-Japan Yahoo's ID and it uses different process: "YPagerJ.exe” <

Although it is possible to run two different software firewalls on your computer, we do not recommend doing so because it may cause performance problems or conflicts. The risk for potential conflict does not outweigh the benefits. ZoneAlarm's firewall is sufficient protection.

ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite will work on any LAN connection with firewalls and proxies. Typically, no additional configuration is needed for ZoneAlarm to work on a LAN.

Making your computer visible on your local network
If you cannot see the other computers on your local network, or they cannot see you, it is possible that ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite is blocking the NetBIOS traffic necessary for Windows network visibility. To make your computer visible to the others on your local network:

• Add the network subnet (or, in a small network, the IP address of each computer with which you're sharing the network) to your Trusted Zone.
• Set the Trusted Zone security level to Medium, and the Internet Zone security level to High.

This configuration allows trusted computers to access your shared files, but blocks all other machines from accessing them. Note: ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite will detect your network automatically and display the New Network alert. You can use the alert itself to add your network subnet to the Trusted Zone.

Sharing files and printers across a local network
To configure ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite for secure sharing:

• Add the network subnet (or, in a small network, the IP address of each computer with which you're sharing the network) to your Trusted Zone.
• Set the Trusted Zone security level to Medium. This setting allows trusted computers to access your shared files.
• Set Internet Zone security level to High. This setting makes your computer invisible to non-trusted machines.

Note: ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite will detect your network automatically and display the New Network alert. You can use the alert itself to add your network subnet to the Trusted Zone.

Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)
If you are using Windows' Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) option, or a third-party connection sharing program, you can protect all of the computers that share the connection from inbound threats by installing ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite on the "gateway" machine only. However, to receive outbound (Program Control) protection, or to see alerts on the client machines, you must have ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite installed on each client machine as well.

Tip: Before you configure ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite, use your ICS software to set up the gateway and client relationships . If you use hardware such as a server or router, rather than a host PC, to perform Internet connection sharing, do not follow the steps below.

On the ICS gateway machine:

• Go to Main tab of the Firewall panel.
• Click Advanced.
• Under Internet Connection Sharing, select This computer is an ICS gateway.
• In the combination box, select or type the IP address of the gateway machine.
• Select Suppress alerts locally if forwarded to clients if you do not want to see alerts that are forwarded to a client.

Note: that if you do not install ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite on the client machines, all alerts will be displayed on the gateway. For best security, make sure the security level for the Internet Zone is set to High. Make sure outgoing DNS and DHCP are allowed for the Internet Zone at High security.

On the ICS client machines:

• Go to Main tab of the Firewall panel.
• Click Advanced.
• Under Internet Connection Sharing, select This computer is a client of an ICS gateway running ZA Pro.
• In the combination box, select or type the IP address of the gateway machine.
• Select Forward alerts from gateway to this computer if you want alerts occurring on the gateway machine to be displayed on this client.

VPN (Virtual Private Network)
If you run a VPN client, ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite examines outgoing packets before encryption and incoming packets after decryption. This inspection prevents malicious traffic from making its way into the VPN tunnel from your computer. It also prevents any malicious traffic that might arrive on your computer via the VPN tunnel from doing any damage.

To configure ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite to protect VPN traffic:

• Add the elements listed below to your Trusted Zone
  • Your VPN server or VPN concentrator
  • All of the LAN and WAN subnets that interact with the internal network to which you want access.
  • Any servers that you will need to make use of through the VPN but which are not on your internal network, such as DNS, POP, or SMTP servers.
  • RADIUS or TACACS servers (if applicable).

If you receive a firewall alert caused by a blocked attempt to access your loop back address (127.0.0.1), add the loop back address to the Trusted Zone, and make sure there is no proxy software running on your computer.

• In the Security tab (Advanced Settings dialog box), select Allow VPN protocols at high security.
• If your VPN uses protocols other than GRE, ESP and AH, select Allow uncommon protocols at high security.

Connecting through a proxy server
To enable your computer to connect to the Internet through a proxy server, add the proxy to your Trusted Zone Configuring ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite with your mail server ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite is configured to work with Internet-based mail servers using POP3 and IMAP4 protocols, when you give your e-mail client privileges to access the Internet.
Some mail servers, like Microsoft Exchange, include collaboration and synchronization features that might require you to trust the server in order for those features to work.
To configure ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite for mail servers with collaboration and synchronization features:

• Add the network subnet or the IP address of the mail server to your Trusted Zone.
• Set the Trusted Zone security level to Medium. This setting allows mail server collaboration features to work.
• Set Internet Zone security level to High. This setting makes your computer invisible to non-trusted machines.

Yes, this glossary presents terms that are commonly used in ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite.

• Administrative Account —The login account and associated properties assigned to administrators of computers.
• Alert —A message displayed in a popup dialog at an endpoint computer as the result of a security exception or violation. Alerts generated can be firewall-related, program-related or MailSafe-related.
• Blocked Zone — A Zone to which known security threats can be directed. Computers and networks placed in the Blocked Zone cannot communicate with an endpoint computer in either direction. See also: Internet Zone, Trusted Zone
• Event — An item entered into the ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite log or appearing as an Alert.
• Gateway —A network point that acts as an entrance to another network. In a company network, a Virtual Private Network (VPN) device may protect access by dial-in users, or a proxy server may act as a gateway between the internal network and the Internet. A gateway may also be any machine or service that passes packets from one network to another network or across the Internet.
• Internet Zone —Includes all non-trusted entities—any computer anywhere on the Internet that is able to send data to the user’s networked computers or receive data coming from them. Members of this Zone are not defined, as it consists of anything not defined in the Trusted or Blocked Zones. The Internet Zone inherently allows access unless the user specifically blocks an activity or traffic type. See also: Blocked Zone, Trusted Zone.
• Local Zone —see Trusted Zone.
• Lock (Internet) —A protective feature that locks activity to and from the Internet when a protected endpoint computer is unattended for a configurable length of time. When the lock is on, no data can enter or leave the endpoint computer through connections to the Internet, unless the pass lock attribute is set for the program involved.
• Malware — Trojan horses, viruses, worms and other malicious code specifically created for the purpose of a) causing damage to computers, b) bypassing legitimate security tools and/or c) taking advantage of software/hardware vulnerabilities.
• Pass Lock — An optional program protection property that allows a given program to continue to access the Internet when the Internet Lock is engaged.
• RADIUS — Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service enables remote access servers to communicate with a central server to authenticate dial-in users and authorize their access to the requested system or service.
• TooLeaky — A proof-of-concept test utility that demonstrates a theoretical vulnerability in personal firewalls by taking control of trusted applications. The Advanced Program Control in ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite stops TooLeaky.
• Trojan horse — A remote administration tool used to infiltrate and seize control of a computer attached to the Internet or a network.
• Trusted Zone — the domains, IP addresses, IP ranges and subnets of sources defined as permissible traffic through the firewall. See also: Internet Zone, Blocked Zone.

ZoneAlarm offers several methods of support to our user base:

• Customer Service —available to help you with purchase information, license key questions, billing, downloading issues, or refunds. For assistance with your recent purchase of ZoneAlarm software, including billing questions, refunds and adjustments, download issues, or use of license keys click here.
• Instant Support —online chat with a virtual technical support agent; includes FAQs for each product. Click here.
• ZoneAlarm Technical Support by Product —provides FAQs about various hot issues. If you have technical questions about ZoneAlarm® Internet Security Suite, ZoneAlarm® Pro, ZoneAlarm Antivirus, ZoneAlarm®, IMsecure™ Pro, or IMsecure™, including installation, uninstallation, or interoperability issues, please visit the Technical Support area of this website. You may also contact our technical support group via fax at +1 415 343 0057.
• User Forum —provides users of all ZoneAlarm and IMsecure products the ability to share ideas and support each other. This is not an official publication of ZoneAlarm, which is not responsible for the content posted therein. Visit the forum.
• Premium Telephone Support —charged to your phone bill or credit card, may be obtained by dialing 1-900-988-ZONE (9663) or 1-877-365-ZONE (9663).

This policy is in place for several reasons:

• Older operating systems, even when still supported by the creating company, often have technical limitations that make it impossible to properly protect our customers using new and advanced ZoneAlarm technology.
• When the creating company stops fixing the new “holes” discovered by hackers in its operating system, customers are much more vulnerable to attack.
• ZoneAlarm strongly encourages its customers to adhere to a “best practices” approach to security, where each best practice that’s upheld makes the customer much less likely to fall victim to attack; and every best practice ignored makes the customer much more vulnerable. Keeping software, including the operating system, up-to-date with the latest security patches is an essential best practice.